Environmental health officers are working to put “scores on doors” for every restaurant, café and bar in Bermuda.

The scheme is to be implemented “within the next year”, according to Jennifer Attride-Stirling, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health.

She shared the plan with this newspaper after we made a public access to information request for the health and safety “grades” given to restaurants in Bermuda.

Our request was turned down by the Department of Health’s information officer on the grounds that retrieving the records would disrupt or interfere with the work of the department and such records were exempt because they contained commercial, confidential and personal information.

Dr Attride-Stirling reviewed that decision, at our request, and upheld the information officer’s refusal, concluding that “on balance, the public interest is better served by non-disclosure”.

But she revealed: “The Department of Health supports the establishment of a publicly available ‘scores on doors’ scheme for food and beverage establishments and is taking steps to implement it within the next year.

“Fair application of such a scheme will require that: establishments know in advance that inspections will result in scores that will be put in the public domain; the inspection system methodically applies criteria to derive the scores; scores be attributed systematically to every establishment inspected; and that the scores be regularly maintained and published.”

This newspaper’s Pati request was made with the aim of publishing a list of all restaurants and their most recent grades, similar to the inspection lookup tool offered by NYC Health.

The New York version enables members of the public to search a database and retrieve health inspection results for each of New York City’s 24,000 restaurants before deciding where to eat.

In Bermuda, it is estimated there are between 150 and 200 restaurants, cafés and bars.

Phil Barnett, president of Island Restaurant Group, said he would not have a problem with a “scores on doors” scheme for the island.

“It wouldn’t be different to many other jurisdictions,” he said. “That wouldn’t be necessarily something we’d be upset with. If it’s coming down the pipe, it’s coming down the pipe. We get inspected every single year and, particularly if there is an issue, we reach out to them [environmental health officers]. We care very much about the safety of our clientele.”

He added: “I can understand how some other restaurants may find that a little concerning.”

Mr Barnett said pests were an issue in Bermuda and restaurants would want the opportunity to deal with temporary infestations before being awarded a public score.

“Something could break out one day and four days later, it’s solved,” he said.

Dr Attride-Stirling said that the grading of restaurants was not a “standardised part of the current inspection regime so scores have not been given consistently to every establishment or recorded on the inspection report”.

For that reason, she said, the Pati request was denied on the grounds that the record requested did not exist in full.

The other valid reasons for non-disclosure, according to Dr Attride-Stirling, were that inspection reports were filed by street address and the Ministry of Health did not have the manpower to retrieve them for every restaurant and that releasing incomplete and dated records could “potentially prejudice the credibility and authority” of the Department of Health.